Klarinet Archive - Posting 000272.txt from 2005/02

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Scaramouche again
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 19:48:10 -0500

> [David Glenn]:
>=20
> Scaramouche was written for Sigurd Rascher in 1939. Here's what I hear =
from
> Carina Rascher: She tells me that her father Sigurd was forced to emmig=
rate
> from Germany in 1939 and for his protection, an obituary was published.=

> Otherwise, he was afraid the Nazis would chase him down. Milhaud had
> written Scaramouche originally for Mr. Rascher as a saxophone solo with=

> orchestra but upon seeing the obituary, made a new version for two pian=
os.
> It wasn't until 1952 in Aspen, Colorado that Rascher met Milhaud again
> where the composer was conducting at a festival.
>=20
> [Tony Pay]:=20
>=20
> Whether this is true awaits final corroboration, but it's not what appe=
ars
> in Grove, and at least one other source has it round the other way.
>=20
> [David Glenn]:
>=20
> I'll forward this to Carina Rascher and see what she can tell us about =
it.
>=20
> [And again David Glenn]:
>=20
> I've been in contact with Carina Rascher and she let me know, that
> everything above is correct except that she wanted to qualify the word
> "flee". As Sigurd Rascher liked to put it, "The clouds were getting too=

> brown." I think Dan and Lelia had described it best. He was not in
> immediate danger but he saw what was going on.

Well, we still don't learn anything more about the order of composition o=
f
the various various versions, which is what interests me; the other sourc=
e

http://www.brazzil.com/daniv/Texts/Le_Boeuf/boeuf.pt.30.htm

still gives:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
---

In 1937 Milhaud composed "...a piano work that gave me enormous trouble. =
It
was a suite for two pianos, to be played by Ida Jankelevitch and Marcelle=

Meyer. I took some passages from two sets of incidental music for the sta=
ge,
and called the mixture Scaramouche. At once Deiss offered to publish it. =
I
advised him against it, saying that no one would want to buy it. But he w=
as
an original character who only published works that he liked. He happened=
to
like Scaramouche and insisted on having his way. In the event he was righ=
t,
for while sales of printed music were everywhere encounterig difficulties=
,
several printings were made, and Deiss took special delight in informing =
me:
'The Americans are asking for 500 copies and 1000 are being asked for
elsewhere'."

Scaramouche is a suite in three mouvements: Vif, Mod=E9r=E9, and Brazilei=
ra. What
Milhaud doesn't tell us is that it was commissioned by Ida Jankelevitch f=
or a
performance at the 1937 Paris World's Fair (Exposition Internationale de=
s
Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne). It became so popular that Milhau=
d
arranged it for saxophone and orchestra....

Milhaud himself recorded Scaramouche, op. 165b with Marcelle Meyer=A0in 1=
938.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
----

We can't know what Rascher's thoughts were as he left Germany, but we can=

know for certain that the version for two pianos was recorded in 1938, an=
d
that Milhaud said he wrote it in 1937. That doesn't square with the
assertion that Milhaud wrote the version for two pianos only after seeing=

Rascher's obituary in 1939, as per Carina Rascher.

Tony
--=20
_________ Tony Pay =20
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd tony.p@-----.org
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artist=
s
tel/fax 01865 553339
=20
... It's not the money I want, it's the stuff.

+------------------------------------------------------------+
| Fri Feb 11 13:04:11 EST 2005 - 156 donations so far. Join |
| the crowd and donate to the Woodwind.Org annual drive. |
| Visit http://secure.donax-us.com/donation for complete |
| information. Every little bit counts a lot! |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org